Recent studies have shown that fat pattering is an important risk factor for diabetes and possibly cardiovascular diseases. The Secretary's Task Force on Black and Minority Health (1985) concluded that diabetes and cardiovascular diseases were among the six causes of death that contribute most to the disparity in death rates between blacks and whites, yet the relationship of fat patterning with these diseases is largely unstudied in blacks. Since there are known racial differences in growth rates, body proportions and adiposity, it cannot be assumed that studies done on whites are applicable to blacks. The objective of this research is to examine the relationship of obesity and fat patterning with morbidity and mortality in black Americans. Data collected in the Charleston Heart Study (1960-1988) offers a rate opportunity to examine these issues. This long-term prospective study includes black and white individuals of both sexes, and will allow racial comparisons between subjects from the same community. The specific aims of the study are as follows: 1. provide estimates of cross sectional relationships between anthropometric measures of body dimensions (abdominal, central and upper body fat patterning and total adiposity) with diabetes, blood pressure, plasma lipids and glucose, and left ventricular wall thickness. 2. identify anthropometric predictors of diabetes, blood pressure, plasma lipids and glucose, and left ventricular wall thickness over a 24 year interval. 3. identify anthropometric predictors of survival over a 25 year period with reference to mortality from CHD, CVD and all cause mortality. 4. describe body dimensions by race and sex groups and examine the changes in the shapes of individuals who have had measurements repeated after a 24 year interval. 5. determine the importance of changes in anthropometric measurements with aging for the prediction of diabetes, blood pressure, plasma lipids and glucose, left ventricular wall thickness, mortality from all causes and mortality form CHD and CVD. This research will provide important information concerning the role of adiposity and fat patterning in diabetes and CVD in blacks, and has implications for the prevention and treatment of these diseases.